Little Cup Dark Horse Challenge!

There we go!
After few bad luck that made me drop below 1950 when I still didn't have the deviation under 75 I went back up slowly but I got it back. Koffing was really fun to play with, his only downfall is the lack of reliable recovery, and a big Abra weakness (If my lileep is weakened) that I didn't have with Vullaby but all around a great Pokemon! He even lived a blizzard from Snover at around half hp with 1 hp left to KO back with sludge bomb.

[Hide="What I found]Pros: I used it as a tank and it had key resistances to Chinchou lacking HP Grass, all Staryu variants and Fire-types, particularly Ponyta and Larvesta.

Cons: GRASS-weakness, Sand Rush Meta = Every team has a Grass-type Attack. Lousy SpD meaning you have to scout for moves before sending it to Wall.

I initially had a team with Wooper and Frillish and it was fun but my skills are very lacking and couldn't get far (even losing to a Leftovers Team D:). Then I had this team:

Wooper and Tentacool formed a great core with its fantastic abilities. Even though they share Water-typing, they don't share Weaknesses at all (Wooper: Grass, Tentacool: Psychic, Electric, Ground). With Liquid Ooze, Tentacool was the perfect teammate as Wooper atracted Giga Drains which Tentacool could capitalize; I chose Sludge Bomb to take on those Grass-types foolish enough to stay on Tentacool. Once Grass-types were removed, Wooper really shone. As Tentacool could be slowly wore down, I ran Larvesta as my second bet against Grass and also easing Wooper's tanking abilities with WoW and Flame Body. Cottonee kept Hazards at bay and prevented setup sweepers from doing a thing so my defensive core wouldn't be overwhelmed, it also provided Stun Spore to slow down things like Misdreavus, Murkrow and Abra so my team was be able to dispatch them once the time was right. Riolu acted as a Revenge Killer and Pivot with Sub and Copycat. As Fire-types were hard pressed to appear so they could counter Cottonee before spreading burns, Tenta and Wooper were able to dispose of them, meaning that Bronzor could set up with impunity depending on what type of offense remained in the other team. Most opponents didn't reserve a sure counter to Bronzor often trying to wear it down with neutral hits (Drain Punch, HJK, Crunch, Shadow Ball) praying for a Crit that even if it showed up wasn't enough to break it.

I got all kind of comments on my teams ranging from insulting my "(BAN ME PLEASE)" strategy to having a good time trying to counter it. All in all, a good experience but too reliant on hax and high prediction skills which I, unfortunatly, lack. This team also provided me with my very first 100+ turns match. It was a looong stall game.

I can't do a Screen Save even if my life depended on it so trust me when I say ACRE 1671, Glicko2 1758+/-62 wins 30, loses 19.[/HIDE]

Little Cup Co-Leader

Yeah, I really suck at laddering, between the 2 alts I used my record is 25-8 which isn't fantastic but oh well. But I used 2 different alts so I haven't got enough battles on either of them to actually appear on the ladder. Anyway, I wanted to post about the 2 Pokemon I was using because not many people have been doing that.

Mantyke: To be honest with the team I was using, Mantyke was kind of lackluster, but I don't think I was supporting it correctly. It really needs spin support because taking 25% every time it switches in does make a significant difference. However with the correct support it has a really great niche. It can easily beat stuff like Timburr or Croagunk and is the only Water type that can stand a chance against Grass types, as sleeping moves don't affect it. It's special bulk is absoulutely incredible only taking about 30% from Snover's Blizzard and 26% from Misdreavus' Shadow Ball. This really helps it switch in against lots of special attackers to beat them one on one. It also pretty much hard-counters Hippopotas which is cool. Unfortunately it's difficult to take advantage of Water Absorb as Staryu and Chinchou commonly use electric moves. In general though I think it's a really under-rated pokemon with incredible bulk that means it can take on quite a few pokemon in the tier.

Numel: Numel worked really well, it was such a great Pokemon as long as you use it correctly. Basically once water types, Hippo and Drilbur (just pack Lileep who beats all of Numel's counters - literally all of them) are eliminated this guy can just sweep teams, setting up on so many things, including some of the most powerful Pokemon in the tier like Murkrow, Misdreavus and Timburr. Albeit, it does struggle slightly switching in to many powerful threats but can beat them one on one. Another thing to note is that it basically Hard Counters most steel types. It is the best Magnemite counter excluding Chinchou and having a steel type on the opposing team is fantastic to use as set up bait. Here's the replay that I posted in the replay thread if you haven't seen it already, which showcases Numel's ability: http://www.pokemonshowdown.com/replay/lc11490891

i was 7-0 on my alt when i got dc'd last turn when all my opponent (who was playing his first LC battle on that alt) had left was fake out/last resort// aipom and i had still missy alive so i had 100% guaranteed win

but i dc and lose, lose like 200 fucking points

i'm quitting this ladder run i'll tell u guys about shelmet another time

why shelmet is a boss(Move your mouse to reveal the content)why shelmet is a boss (open)why shelmet is a boss (close)

Shelmet: Is a fucking boss. It counters pretty much all scraggy (except those who use head smash....) and same goes for timburr. Battle armor prevents you from getting fucked up by crits, meaning you'll always win the bulk up/dd vs acid armor war It can easily find an oppurtunity to set up spikes, and combined with a solid spinblocker spikes are actually really good. Shelmet has a shitton of physical bulk, being able to almost always live a brave bird from Eviolite Murkrow (i know this isn't a practical calc, just to show it's bulk)

same thing, you can acid armor along with him to negate his boosts and slowly whittle him down with Bug Buzz

Shelmet only really needs Rapid Spin support, and one should preferably not use it in sandstorm (unless you're ballsy and run overcoat like i did, but then you might get screwed up by hax etc etc) Shelmet really likes to see the opponent toxic'd when all it's doing is sitting on it's lazy bum and spamming recover etc etc.

edit: Doing a new ladder run with Shelmet (hippo-> wish/protect/heal bell/dragon tail lickitung, overcoat -> battle armor) on the Alt Swashbuckled. Current Rating is 1752 (rating glitch made me think it was higher)

EDIT: okay, I have started over twice now, my internet connection is just... not behaving, every time I build up any kind of run it destroys me >.<
But yeah, Corphish is kinda meh, it's not too hard to set up, because of it's pretty good psychical bulk with Eviolite, but taking a hit when setting up is unavoidable sometimes, because it's not a big switch forcer. Once you've taken a hit, it's easily picked off by scarfers and priority. It does have very nice power, though, with Adaptability it's STAB Waterfall hits very hard, it's okay against Sand, but most Sand teams carry Lileep, a +1 Superpower doing ~65%. It's quite easy to stop if you are prepared for it, and most teams are, without even knowing it.

Edit2: Fickle me has now decided to use a much cooler crab: krabby. and mantyke, cos it's almost a fish :) (I realised I was using mantyke on my team without registering it beforehand, but superwii/the unlucky one pointed out to me that it was a dh, does it still count? ^.^)
Alt: trash my soul